British taxpayers GIVE AWAY £30million in benefits to other countries each year

BRITISH taxpayers are giving more than £30million a year in Child Benefit to families in other EU countries, it emerged last night.

British taxpayers are spending millions to raise children in foreign countries [GETTY]

Most of the cash is being paid to relatives of migrant workers, with almost two-thirds going to Poland.

Brussels laws mean ministers are powerless to stop the payments which triggered fresh fury about foreigners milking the benefit system.

The figures were released by the Treasury in response to MPs’ questions just days after the UK Independence Party won European elections following concern about migration.

Andy Silvester, campaign director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance pressure group, said: “The Government has to step in. The idea that UK taxpayers should be paying to raise children in foreign countries is ludicrous.”

The figures showed that last year Child Benefit funded by British taxpayers went to 20,400 families with a total of 34,268 children living overseas.

Most is being paid to relatives of migrant workers who have come to Britain under EU free-movement rules,

The idea that UK taxpayers should be paying to raise children in foreign countries is ludicrous

Andy Silvester, campaign director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance

Meanwhile, around 1.2million families with a parent paying higher-rate tax have lost some or all of their benefit.

Child Benefit at the time was £20.30 a week for the first child and £13.40 for each subsequent child.

The biggest payout was to 13,174 families in Poland with 22,093 children.

Other recipients included 1,215 families in Lithuania with 1,712 children and a total of 416 families with 637 children in Romania and Bulgaria.

The numbers of families receiving the cash last year was around 15 per cent lower than in 2012.

The Coalition has introduced rules preventing new arrivals from claiming benefits for the first three months but critics say that is not long enough.

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UKIP leader Nigel Farage said: “We must be mad to be giving people from Eastern Europe in-work benefits.”

Tory MP Andrew Rosindell who helped obtain the figures, said: “I don’t believe anybody coming in from the EU should get benefits until they are more permanently settled. It should be five years. David Cameron says we cannot do it at the moment. I think we should.”

Fellow Tory Mark Reckless said: “It is a disgrace that we are paying Child Benefit for kids who do not live in this country. It is yet another reason why we need to get out of the EU.”

Senior Labour MP Keith Vaz, who also tabled a question over the payments, added: “Without EU reform this issue will never be resolved. The Prime Minister should lay out his reform agenda now or face an impossible task.” Treasury minister Nicky Morgan said: “The recent changes to migrants’ access to benefits announced by the Government send a strong message that the UK benefit system is not open to abuse, as well as deterring those who may seek residence in the UK primarily to claim benefits.”